What's seen by the naked eye?

[Alice Taylor]

Hello I'm wondering if all the stars we see with the naked eye are within our Milky Way Galaxy. I'm presuming they are, but I live in the N. hemisphere and have never seen the Magelenic Clouds, which I believe are acutally satelite galaxies. I know that Andromeda can be seen, but are there any independet stars between the galaxies, and do we see them. One more question, is the Sun in the Sagitarius arm or the Orion Arm?
Thanks,
Alice

[Case]

Are there any independet stars between the galaxies, and do we see them.

There are other groups of stars outside our Milky Way Galaxy, but in the neighborhood of it. Globular Clusters, like M22, can be bright enough to see with the naked eye, as they are many stars grouped together to have enough combined luminosity to compensate their distance. It may not be recognizable as a cluster with the naked eye, though.

One more question, is the Sun in the Sagitarius arm or the Orion Arm?

The Sun in located in the Orion Arm. The Sagittarius Arm is located directly 'inwards'; in the direction of the galactic center.

[Chris Peterson]

Hello I'm wondering if all the stars we see with the naked eye are within our Milky Way Galaxy.

Just to clarify Case's answer, you are correct that all the individual stars you can see with the naked eye are in our own galaxy, and in fact, are in our local region of the Galaxy. Any more distant light you might see, as from bright galaxies or clusters, is the combined light from many stars which cannot be individually resolved without a telescope (and usually not even then).

[NoelC]

As far as I know, occasionally supernovae in other galaxies become visible to the unaided eye. That would classify as a star outside our own galaxy being visible. It's not the norm, though, as such events are rare.

In a very dark place, some galaxies can be seen without hardware. M31 (the Andromeda galaxy) for example.

And just for reference, the Hubble Space Telescope can resolve individual stars in many of the closer galaxies.

-Noel